Field Service News | Blumberg Advisory Group

Is Remote Service Here to Stay?

Sep 17, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

Deconstructing the Service Delivery Value Chain and Research What Your Customer Wants

Sep 15, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

What Are the Sectors the Field Service Industry Should Learn From When It Comes to Service Marketing?

Sep 13, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

How Big is the Difference between Upselling Service to Existing Clients and Selling Service to New Clients?

Sep 10, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

What Should Service Directors Focus on to Achieve Successful Service Marketing?

Sep 08, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

The Disconnect between Marketing Leadership and Service Leadership

Sep 03, 2021 • Features • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

Challenges and Issues in Service Marketing

Sep 01, 2021 • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • Service Leadership • Servitization and Advanced Services • Digital Symposium • service marketing

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Michael Blumberg, President and CEO of Blumberg Advisory Group.

Field Service Scheduling Software and What You Need to Know

Sep 07, 2018 • Features • Michael Blumberg • workforce management • Workforce Scheduling • Blumberg Advisory Group • dynamic scheduling • field service • field service management • scheduling • Service Management • Software and Apps

Scheduling software has long been a foundational technology for field service companies allowing them to meet customer demands. Michael Blumberg lifts the lid on all of the key aspects of this crucial tool...

If you have spent any time in Field Service, you probably understand the importance of managing service delivery functions against key performance indicators (KPIs). Among the most critical KPIs in the Field Service Leaders track are First Time Fix (FTF), Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance or Onsite Response Time (ORT), and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). These KPIs measure the effectiveness of a Field Service Organization (FSOs) in delivering quality service in a timely manner.

The inability to meet KPI targets may result in exponential costs, customer attrition and loss of revenue; whereas the ability to exceed customer expectations can result in customer appreciation followed by an increase in profit margins and sales. To effectively schedule/dispatch the right technician to arrive on time with the right parts and skillset plays a significant role in meeting these outcomes. This is definitely not a small feat for your typical FSO.

"Scheduling and dispatching Field Service Engineers (FSE) poses a challenge for most FSOs, particularly those with more than 5 FSEs. The reason behind this is there are many variables and factors involved..."

Scheduling and dispatching Field Service Engineers (FSE) poses a challenge for most FSOs, particularly those with more than 5 FSEs. The reason behind this is there are many variables and factors involved.

An FSO with only one or two FSEs and a few customers may not perceive scheduling to be a major challenge. The volume of service requests may be relatively low while the options of who, when and where to send them may be rather limited. Scheduling becomes more of a challenge as the volume of service requests (i.e., customers) and the number of FSEs increases.

Adding to this complexity are the business objectives and/or constraints an FSO must optimize to meet its scheduling requirements.

With additional constraints or objectives, the more difficult it becomes to produce a solid schedule. For example, if the objective is to only meet a response time commitment to the customer, then the decision is easy - assign the FSE who can arrive in a timely manner at the customer’s site.

If FTF, MTTR, and/or SLA Compliance targets are also part of the equation, it becomes even more difficult to produce that solid schedule. Adding a profit margin objective, high call volumes, multiple geographies, and a sizable pool of FSEs, the decision becomes even more overwhelming.

"The reason why scheduling is so excruciating of a task is that there are numerous factors that an FSO would need to create and evaluate to determine the optimal assignment for each FSE..."

The reason why scheduling is so excruciating of a task is that there are numerous factors that an FSO would need to create and evaluate to determine the optimal assignment for each FSE.

This is a time-consuming activity that requires an extensive amount of computational power to achieve. Many companies have suffered from a loss of time and resources in dealing with confusion and potential human error. The solution is Dynamic Scheduling Software.

Dynamic Scheduling Software provides FSOs with the feature-rich functionality that streamlines, automates, and optimizes scheduling decisions.

This technology ensures the FSO sends the assigned technician to the right job having the proper skill set and arriving on time. These applications typically leverage a scheduling engine that optimizes FSE job assignment. Scheduling engines vary in their complexity ranging from those based on business rules to Linear Programming (i.e. goodness of fit) techniques, Operations Research Algorithms (e.g., Quantum Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, etc.), or Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Self-Learning applications.

The complexity of the scheduling problem, number and types of resources involved, duration of tasks, and objectives to be optimized play a role in determining which scheduling engine is most functional.

Critical factors to consider may include whether the scheduling engine can handle:

multi-day projects or short duration field service visits,
people and assets (e.g., tools, parts, trucks, equipment) or solely people,
the number and types of KPIs that are part of the objective, and
route planning requirements.

In evaluating Dynamic Scheduling Software, FSOs are also advised to consider the following criteria:

Cloud versus On-Premise Deployment Options
Speed and Ease of Implementation
Integration with Back-office Systems
Availability of Real-time Visibility by the Customer
FSO Requirements for Best of Breed or Integrated Enterprise Solution
Total Cost of Ownership
Return on Investment
Vendor Industry Knowledge and Experience

There are over a dozen software vendors who offer some form of dynamic scheduling functionality for field service.

Obviously, no two Dynamic Scheduling applications are alike. Each one has their points of differentiation. The best solution is a function of the level of importance the FSO places on each criterion and how each vendor meets these criteria.

Regardless of which vendor is selected, the benefits of Dynamic Scheduling are clear.

In fact, industry benchmarks show that companies who implement these types of solutions can achieve a 20% to 25% improvement in operating efficiency, field service productivity, and utilization. The impact on bottom line profitability and customer satisfaction is substantial. To enable FSOs to provide customers with an Uber-like experience and significant profitability, FSOs should consider deploying Dynamic Scheduling Software as part of their service delivery infrastructure.

Michael Blumberg, is President of the Blumberg Advisory Group

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A Field Service Leaders Survival Guide For Dealing with Digital Transformation, Servitization, and Uberization

Feb 20, 2018 • Features • Management • Augmented Reality • manufacturing • Michael Blumberg • Blumberg Advisory Group • digital disruption • digitalisation • IoT • Servitization

The digital revolution in the field service sector is continuing to move forward at pace, Michael Blumberg, Principal Consultant, Blumberg Advisory Group helps us keep track...

It seems that there is no escaping the Digital Transformation Revolution in Field Service at this moment. A splendid example of this is the Servitization of Manufacturing. Servitization is about the journey a company goes through as it transforms from a product-centric company where service is an afterthought or a necessary evil to one that generates a sizable portion of revenue from services; where service is the business. The ultimate example is a Product as a Service business.

This is sort of the razor and razor blade scenario where the manufacturer gives away the razor in exchange for the recurring revenue stream that comes from purchasing the razor blades. Instead of razor blades, it services or more specifically, outcome-based services. For example, paying for the usage or result (e.g., outcome) produced by a product instead of buying the actual product. To deliver on the promise, the provider of this outcome most implement a broad array of digital technologies to ensure the equipment is up and running whenever the customer needs to access it. Downtime is problematic so you need to have technologies like IoT, AI, AR, etc. to ensure this high uptime.

In parallel to the servitization trend is the general ethos that businesses need to disrupt or be disruptedIn parallel to the servitization trend is the general ethos that businesses need to disrupt or be disrupted. Uber has become the poster child for disruption. This has lead many Field Service Organizations, software vendors, and technology providers to promote the concept of “Uberization” within field service.

Let’s put the term Uberization into context, when I hear the term Uberization, I think of providing customers with real-time, on-demand, always on, always connected solution. Other terms that people associate with Uberization are agility and frictionless. Agility is the ability to scale quickly, frictionless is where touch points that would delay the time it takes to complete a transaction are eliminated. We might also think of a solution that incorporates aspects of the sharing economy or gig economy.

The Field Service Industry is far from being a laggard when it comes to Uberization. Examples of how Field Service Organizations (FSOs) are achieving this outcome include but are not limited to:

Utilizing IoT to monitor equipment performance and send notifications and alerts about the condition and performance of the machine
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to interpret these notifications, identify and diagnose problems, and take corrective actions
Transmitting dispatch orders, triggered by IoT alerts, electronically to an ERP or CRM system and using Dynamic Scheduling software functionality to assign the right person for the job based on the needs of the job
Turning to a freelance management system platform to source and dispatch freelance technicians on-demand to scale to capacity during peak periods
Using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, or Mixed Reality to provide less experienced field engineers with expertise they need to resolve technical problems they haven’t encountered before
Relying on Big Data and analytics to optimize resource planning and allocation issues.[/unordered_list]

If FSOs are going to remain relevant and create value for their customers, their leaders must adapt and grow within the context of the trends identified above. This motivation is required now more than ever. Technological development and new business models are coming at such as rapid pace that leaders can afford to rest on their laurels or past successes of their company. Past success does not guarantee future results!

In this digital age, companies must be faster, stronger and better than their competitorsIn this digital age, companies must be faster, stronger and better than their competitors. A 5-year strategy is typically out of date within 18 months or less. To survive and thrive in 2018, Field Service Leaders must have a crystal-clear vision about the outcomes they’d like to achieve within their organizations. They must pursue these outcomes with laser-like focus and adopt a sense of urgency about achieving these results.

Accountability to the mission is critical as is a mindset of certainty and a spirit of resourcefulness.

Quite often, the greatest of strategies and best of intentions are not pursued because of a lack of certainty or a perceived lack of resources. The truth is that those who overcome enormous challenges and achieve phenomenal results have done so because of their determination (i.e., certainty) and their resourcefulness. Cultivate these traits and the possibilities are endless.

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Is Remote Service Here to Stay?

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Further Reading:

Deconstructing the Service Delivery Value Chain and Research What Your Customer Wants

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Further Reading:

What Are the Sectors the Field Service Industry Should Learn From When It Comes to Service Marketing?

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Further Reading:

How Big is the Difference between Upselling Service to Existing Clients and Selling Service to New Clients?

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Further Reading:

What Should Service Directors Focus on to Achieve Successful Service Marketing?

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Further Reading:

The Disconnect between Marketing Leadership and Service Leadership

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Further Reading:

Challenges and Issues in Service Marketing

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Further Reading:

Field Service Scheduling Software and What You Need to Know

"Scheduling and dispatching Field Service Engineers (FSE) poses a challenge for most FSOs, particularly those with more than 5 FSEs. The reason behind this is there are many variables and factors involved..."

"The reason why scheduling is so excruciating of a task is that there are numerous factors that an FSO would need to create and evaluate to determine the optimal assignment for each FSE..."

A Field Service Leaders Survival Guide For Dealing with Digital Transformation, Servitization, and Uberization

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